syncopated.

sea games

that's wearn haw leading off the start line in subic bay.

memories of that and the asean sailing championships 4 years back. i remember having nice oscillating wind...

and in particular, the team racing final. we were leading the host nation philippines 1,2,3,8 (mel, me, sarah, chin was last haha) going into the first reach. one of them caught up on the leeward stern of sarah, and with the jury boat 10 boatlengths away, just started luffing her to windward (overtaking boat). she was protesting, but the jury waived it away.

eventually she was last wich chin, so me and mel had to take action on the last upwind, and we ended it finishing in a flourish like 2,3,4 or smth.

the jury is the third player on the field.

about the sea games.

this is outdated by now, but after three races, we are headed for 6 golds, 1 silver and 3 bronzes. find the results here. as of now there are only 4 pics, in which some smart ass decided to prominently stick the photographer's name.

to summarise:

1st - chin and rence, dawn and siobhan, maxi (not sure of that one), toh liying and lee ching, zhen and justin, mel and pei pei, manyi.

basically the double handers are doing well.

2nd - sean losing his battle with alvin

3rd - roy and pei ming, wearn haw, griz.

goh thye hock is 4th in the rsx but i don't know who that is.

nothing is concrete yet, indeed we'll probably see some frailed nerves towards the end. i'll venture to say that we'll probably lose and gain some golds in the last few races.

especially when the sea games sailing is not proper sailing anyway. it's match racing, plain and simple. looking at the tables, the largest fleet is, what, 5? cmon, we've sent 10 optimists to swan river before! we had good racing. but at the sea games you know your rival before anything even starts, and you must mark him/her down to win.

that's not fun when you have to race up to 15 times. consistency should win competitions, but here there is no need because with so few sailors you could hardly go wrong.

real racing is when you sail against a fleet of at least 50, where there are decisions to be made, where there is playing of the dice, where you stand to lose everything from a bad mistake.

i guess there is a different skills needed in sailing against 5 and against 50. what our sailors are going through now is really a mental challenge. in a world championship against many pros you need more skill in tactics and strategy.

a sidetrack.

i heard from a golf commentary
some time ago

that often a saved par is worth more than an easy birdie.

it means much the same in sailing... it's often better to have been able to, following a poor start, rise through the fleet to finish in the top 5, rather than lead from start to finish. it works out in the end - it's basically cutting your losses. in two races, two 5s beat a 1st and a 10th.


anyway.

we all sailed radial today. 'twas fun playing the shifts, but the wind could have been a bit more forgiving.

something about choosing between improving your sailing skills and switching class so as to have a good chance to win a medal at the asian games. it's all about priorities, priorities. whether you want to sail all your life or take the best out of it now and leave after that.

it's a hard life of decisions, man. gd luck to the sailors, as much as i hate the close quarter races.

Strummed at 9:29 PM (x)

round up of the weekend

it's been an interesting weekend.

are you asleep? are you in a dream?
the copper shades of a morning.
distant lights beckon and fade.
unwritten songs of another day.

i fear that you would never be
every song in the world for me.
took your hand, led you astray.
you cursed the worlds i longed to save.

is heaven to you a perfect place?
the look of sorrow on a sufferer's face.
a field of lives to sow and to reap
that some of us will never see?

and why is it I didn't feel the same?
are my longings to be blamed
for not seeing heaven like you would see?
why is a song the world for me?

what is forgiveness?
it's just a dream -
what is forgiveness?

it's everything!

i like brown.

problem is, it seems to be everywhere nowadays. so many people wearing it.

i've discovered a liking for samuel & kevin... although it's wierd that they sponsor s.h.e, lmao!


starting from friday...

went to cine's 8th floor. if you're wondering... don't ever go there again.

the group was marcus, damian, shen, the other collin, zhi yang (how's ur back?), fendi, gandhi and two of his friends (keith and smb).

you have to pay 3.50 by the hour i.e. pay before you play. because a few of us were early, i ended up playing 1v1 dota with collin (not sure how it got to that). then we gave up and watched the rest play css... cuz it wasn't going to be worth it to get another com with css for 40 min.

zathura was above expectations. of course we all expected a random movie, but i guess they pulled it off rather well. things happened.

(sneaking subway and bk into the cinema)

then played (tried) playing dota with everyone, but the coms kept disconnecting themselves from the server, and we couldn't get a proper game started. so all in all i wasted 7 dollars without playing.

. . .

things looked up in the evening. a cab carrying micheal and i brought us to tim lim's place in hillington green (near where matthias stays) where we had our acs sailors' bbq. almost everyone came, and we set down under dim lighting to have our shepard's pie and macaroni and what have you.

it seems to be our acs tradition that at every gathering, we would get together after eating, get ourselves into a laughing mood and refuse to sober up for at least the next half hour. sigh. poor shu yan seemed destined to be an outcast the entire evening.

i really don't know why, but i seem to be a bit cynical about anything related to school. i feel quite irritated by most of the juniors, and i'm reluctant to join in the dunking of tim lim and kwong. i feel it's - childish. and yet i know that i'm often just as foolish - perhaps it just turns me off to see other people behaving like that.

. . .

about 10+ pple went to stay over at jason's house at namly place. i keep thinking they live somewhere in choa chu kang because i distinctly remember dropping dawn off at her then house a few years back. anyway, terrific place, i really like justin's room (hmm, come to think of it, i didn't go and take a peak at dawn's room). lol he was playing dota the whole time.

and there was kwong, greg, terry and i laughing like crazy over a silly table football game. you know those little things where you control the players on the table by twisting these rods at the side.

yeah. it looks smth like this.



we were so loud. surely the others must have thought we were crazy... but there you go. just moments ago i'm thinking "damn they're childish" and then i'm thinking "damn i'm childish".


watched two movies, staying up until past 5. sorry giba, haha.

gangs of new york is probably one of the best films i've ever watched. the plot's tight, characters are played well ("someone's popped the butcher!") and drama was great. very gory though.

i'm not sure i wanna talk about best bet. horrible, horrible. it was ok up to a point.


i'm loving the sound of that acoustic. even though i have to sort of manually pick out notes... i don't know how to play chords. but i do want to learn.

i actually sort of made a little riff of my own.

and a cut on my middle finger
for my troubles.

i want a guit!

and selective hearing.

so i can block out hilary, ashlee, britney...

... backstreet gays, the click five...

and mom's shocked naggings.

. . .

sailing was pretty much a breeze. sat - cycled to safra and back, but with a large tyre trailing from behind... much like maxi in his st article.

sunday was the keta race... not sure what the wind was doing. it was coming from the north west (?!?!), and we had 3 races. summary is that (after testing whether polar products are waterproof. ain't i accident-prone!) cai beat me by a few points to get his neilpryde mesh bag.

i got a lesser looking bag, but with a whole lot of goodies - in particular this neilpryde windsurfing catalogue. not that i'm inspired to be the next billabong/ripcurl/quiksilver sponsored himbo on a board with a sail crashing down a wave, but

the pictures are

woah.

*unsticks eyes from pictures*

time to fly...

gd day all.

Strummed at 7:34 PM (x)

lack of quidditch

i forgot to mention this.

i simply cannot believe how the directors did up the quidditch world cup so well... (portkey, tents, stadium, crowd, victor krum etc.)

and then decide not to have the quidditch match at all.

makes no sense. and on sunday i realised on channel 5 they had shown a quidditch match in chamber. not sure why goblet should be any different - rushed movie.

gotta pity them though. best book of the lot, so much content, difficult to fit it all in. maybe they should have done two separate movies haha.

credit to them the final fighting scene turned about to be almost exactly like how i had pictured it when reading the book. just that i had imagined them flying around each other, haha.


im gonna get a new boat... im hoping not to break anything else! *crosses fingers.

Strummed at 9:55 PM (x)

dream defender

sorrow drips into your heart
through a pinhole
just like a faucet that leaks
and there is comfort in the sound
but while you debate half
empty or half full
it slowly rises

your love is gonna drown.

extensive list of damages:

2 upper masts
1 lower mast
2 trolleys
sail has been patched 3 times
1 boat



"sailed 10 min in 8 kts of wind, tack once, tack twice, crack

and i'm back on shore before they launch."

wind has swung north.

time to play.

. . .

dreams are result of the mind beginning to see what the eyes cannot.

Strummed at 2:32 PM (x)

dream theater

... and talk about dreams!

i turn over the front page of life! this morning, and...



dream theater are coming to play at the indoor stadium come jan 27!

talk about dreams.

Strummed at 9:27 AM (x)

dreams

i dreamt this last night.

3 astronauts (me being one of them) go into outer space in some sort of space shuttle, to some planet. there are lush rainforests, and we take many photos of the life that is there. for some reason, there were creatures like birds, insects, but there were also wierd things that i can't really describe accurately.

on the descent back to earth, there was some malfunction in the shuttle, and we crashed into the sea in the classic ball of fire.

from here the dream changed into the 3rd person perspective, and the speaker commented on how some very important evidence of life in outer space was lost. something like that. i just remember feeling that something very important (other than my life) had been lost.

ominous.

I'll drown my beliefs
To have you be in peace
I'll dress like your niece
To wash your swollen feet

Just don't leave,
Don't leave

And true love waits
In haunted attics
And true love wins
On lollipops and crisps

Just don't leave
Don't leave

I'm not living
I'm just killing time
Your tiny hands
Your crazy kitten smile

Just lonely, lonely...
Just lonely, lonely...

remembering discussing dreams with chinnie and kwong. chin was feeling all distraught after being shocked by so many dreams of people dying horrible deaths. "i was looking from above as this other guy shot me in the head." perhaps you shouldn't drink so much haha.

and i was telling kwong about all my very wierd dreams. usually they tend to be two or more different thoughts intertwined together, perhaps what i'd been thinking about just before the doze.

the quirkiest example was of my family driving around in the countryside in a rented saloon (presumably a holiday). the most vivid image i can picture is of dad driving the car up a 90 degree cliff, me saying "i don't think the car is meant to handle such terrain"

and he says

"don't worry, everything is going to be just fine..."

and mom and dad have a good laugh, while the car reaches the peak of the cliff, and plunges into another ravine below. and we continue driving through it all.

and so i told them i sometimes look forward to having a good laugh about my dreams.


i'd had a look at the discover magazine article on space rockets a few days ago. guess you can see where i got the inspiration for the dream above.

and for some reason i'm now thinking of harry potter twisting and turning in his dorm bed, having a nightmare about visiting some mysterious door in the ministy of magic.

sure, the mind's is a special, amazing, wonderous,
queer, stupefying, creepy, wierd,

(huh?)

totally random

piece of machinery.

it would certainly make things a lot easier if we could remember every little thing.

and now i'm reminded of my dad mixing up cheese cake, chocolate cake and tiramisu.


hmm.

let me now try something totally and spontaneously profound.

dreams are made of fact and fiction,

truth and falsehoods,

inspiration and muddles,

dreams are sudden and gradual,

fast and slow,

silly and smart,

dreams are climaxes and lulls,

full of colour and black and white,
loud and soft,

all mixed up together in different varying proportions.

all in all,
difficult to describe.

don't you dare mess with your dreams, boy.

Strummed at 10:07 AM (x)

leaking

i will need to ask.

training has felt good; it's back to "can't help but dozing off at 10" - just so worn out.

tue - gym
wed - sail
thurs - gym
sat & sun - sail

burnt.

the red boat's leaking like there's no tomorrow. after all that maintenance... on wed i could for some reason still keep up, but on sat it was utterly useless. had to borrow a boat from ssf for sunday.

might as well use the hiking machine in the gym and splash water in my face.

but sunday was good. highlight is overtaking two laser standards and one radial on a particular downwind leg.

and what's that lump of sand doing on our patch of grass?!

. . .

read in the papers about the new olympic format.

points are doubled in the last race, ie. 1st gets 2 pts, 2nd gets 4 etc.

cannot be discarded.

only the top 10 go into the last race.

and its held further inshore to facilitate the media.

very interesting, very complicated.

. . .

how do i spend my holidays?

independent. independence. solitary?

i actually recognised radiohead's 'optimistic' playing in the background during bbc's top gear program yesterday.

do i

do i not try

keep

banging away.

. . .

here's where i need to be careful with words.

talking about the time when someone told me that coach y spouted degratory remarks about the previous coach x, saying "he wasn't really that good". this despite him not having accomplished much in, what, a two year tenure?

i've been under both coaches. i was told that all coaches, bad or good, teach something. i can hardly think of anything coach y really did for me- indeed paling in comparison to x.

to be fair to y, he had trained his team for about 10 months before suddenly having his place relinquished just before the two important competitions. speak of being unlucky.

but what he said seemed to have affected the team. silly thing to say.

Strummed at 9:17 AM (x)

i should be

i would be going through one of the major trials of life in this present period of time.

had i not decided
to change tacks
two years ago.

and so here i am, organising outings, playing lan, watching no-brainer movies (saw a lot of bones being broken by tony jaa), walking around town, eating ice-cream before dinner with mates (and talking about no-brainer movies), staying up late to watch soccer, sleeping over, slacking/playing at home, saving money for new stuff.

so, as repetitive as this may seem,
good luck again.



i helped buy a dilbert comic book for my employers. "another day in cubicle paradise"; hope it's suitable under the circumstances.



group pic of the crew of john 3:16:



samuel, theodore, paul, me, leslie.

taken with a canon eos 350d,
iso 400, 1/800 shutter speed, flash.
lol.

oh ya, theodore knows xyz. apparently they used to be part of the 12 saraca rd gang... told me he went with them to sentosa some time during my attachment.

i remember seeing a razrwire last week on the mrt. interesting, but it gives the image of a rapper like snoop dog or pharell or smth.



on to greater things.

i shall have to consider whether to get a new boat for aus, or even get a new one from there. mark robinson told me it would be a waste of time to ship the trusty old red boat there.

tears stream
down your face
when you lose something you cannot replace

sea games team is leaving very soon. while sean and co. swiped the asians optis, which bodes well. i'd like to see them off...

and on that note, gd luck to the other colin in your progress! not sure, but i think it'll be either a topper or a pico.

and kwong ming... if you're interested in the 'interesting', 'christmasy', 'freaky' 'distortion' that is

watch this.

and keep a lookout on my jukebox!

nah, i'm kidding. that's the wrong link.
but the error 404 is still damn funny to read.

here it is.

enjoy.

i saw this print on a shirt (also on the mrt). "dream generator" or smth like that. think i've got some motivation to wovee a story around that, haha.

a little snippet:
"final call for flight of fantasy 198. sweet dreams."

on the backend of forever.

Strummed at 10:56 PM (x)

two cows

clearing room rubbish is difficult; always feel reluctant to throw away perfectly good things that will almost certainly be useless and clutter up the room.

when the levee breaks, mama,
you got to lose.

recovered some of this from a pod session earlier this year.

the story of two cows

socialism: you have 2 cows and you give one to your neighbour.

communism: you have 2 cows, the government takes both and gives you some milk.

fascism: you have 2 cows, the government takes both and sells you some milk.

nazism: you have 2 cows. the government takes both and shoots you.

bureaucratism: you have 2 cows; the government takes both, shoots one, milks the other and throws the milk away.

traditional capitalism: you have 2 cows. you sell one and buy a bull. your heard multiplies, and the economy grows. you sell them and retire on the income.

an american corporation: you have 2 cows. you sell one and force the other to produce the milk of 4 cows. later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow dropped dead.

a french corporation: you have 2 cows. you go on strike because you want 3 cows.

a japanese corporation: you have 2 cows. you redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. you then create a clever cow cartoon image called cowkimon and market them world wide.

a german corporation: you have 2 cows. you reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

an italian corporation: you have 2 cows, but you don't know where they are. you break for lunch.

a russian corporation: you have 2 cows. you count them and learn you have 5 cows. you count them again and learn you have 42 cows. you count them again and learn you have 2 cows. you stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

a swiss corporation: you have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. you charge others for storing them.

a chinese corporation: you have 2 cows, you have 300 people milking them. you claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the numbers.

an indian corporation: you have 2 cows. you worship them.

a british corporation: you have 2 cows. both are mad.

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

i want to know what class i'm in next year.
quickly.

this past week, i met:
some gep from our school
friends of my father (who recognised me)
kenneth yeo and his parents
mark chua
mark ooi's father

while working at the camera shop.

the attachment's now almost ending.

Close the door and drift away
Into a sea of uncertainty
Where all your hopes and dreams
Have faded out of reach.
Remember all the bad dreams
Are not far from reality
Would you write again for me?

That the paper's your soul
and your blood's in the pen.

If heaven sent you downstream
Where banished eyes haven't been
Would you smile again for me?
You misread your fate line
Had long run out of time
Would you write again for me?

Strummed at 11:32 AM (x)